Why do SHLOMO BEN-AMI, THOMAS C.
SCHELLING, JEROME M. SEGAL and JAVIER SOLANA
want to reinvent the wheel? Israel is a sovereign nation in long term
and flagrant violation of international law and the Palestinians basic
human rights. There are already reams and reams of resolutions and
promises all broken so that Zionist ideologues and bigots can find more
time and ways persecute, displace, discredit, and disenfranchise the
native non-Jewish population of the Holy Land.

In 1948 when Israel was founded Martin Luther King Jr had yet to help
America understand the importance of becoming a more real democracy
with full and equal rights for all. But even so the United Nations
made it quite clear that every refugee has a right to return to
original homes and lands. Part and parcel of the two state solution was
then, and remains now, the understanding that people should not be
discriminated against because of their supposed race or religion.

A fully secular two state solution to once and for end the
Israel-Palestine conflict really is the best way forward, and the
ground work for that is already in place.

"It's
a simple dictum, but one that many still have trouble accepting:
Israelis and Palestinians have to talk to each other if they're going
to get anywhere." Hussein
Ibish:
We Need To Talk

Refugees
and the Right of
Return
Palestinian refugees must
be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as
receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession
and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i)
resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly
independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of
Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal
status in the host country where they currently reside. What is
important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which
option they prefer a decision must not be imposed upon them.

UN Resolution 194 Article 11: [The
General Assembly]
Resolves that the refugees
wishing to return to their homes
and live in peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at
the earliest possible date, and that compensation should be paid for
the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage
to property which, under principles of international law or in equity,
should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible;
instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation,
resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and
the payment of compensation, and to maintain close relations with the
Director of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees and,
through him, with the appropriate organs and agencies of the United
Nations.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

"This week, Yishaiaskedrhetorically:
“So what, the State of Israel, as the Jewish state, in the name of
democracy, in the name of honouring UN resolutions, (should accept) a
recipe for suicide?” Likewise, when the Supreme Court ruled in favour of
the separation of Palestinian spouses, the majority opinionstated: “human rights are not a prescription for national suicide”. "

What is behind the Israeli mistreatment of African migrants?

Therecentanti-African mobviolencein Tel Aviv was, sadly, no surprise. Only a few days previously, Prime Minister Netanyahuwarned“illegal
infiltrators” could threaten the country’s existence “as a Jewish and
democratic state”, with Interior Minister Eli Yishai saying that “the
migrants are giving birth to hundreds of thousands, and the Zionist
dream is dying”.

Cabinet ministerstalkin
terms of “expulsion by consent or without consent” to “preserve the
country's Jewish identity”, and of “taking steps to kick out” the “scourge” of “infiltrators”. A prominent Likud parliamentarian and chair of the “Knesset Caucus to Solve the Infiltrator Problem”urgedfor this “plague” to be removed “without delay and without mercy”.

Adisturbingconference
held in April in Ramle gives further insight into this mainstream
racism, and points to an important connection between the anti-African
incitement, and the institutionalised discrimination faced by
Palestinians....READ MORE

There has been a big increase in the number of
Palestinian homes in the West Bank which have been demolished by Israeli
forces, according to figures released by the United Nations. Much of it takes place in what is called Area C, which covers
more than 60% of the West Bank, and where Israel maintains complete
control. Jon Donnison reports from the West Bank.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Israeli
archaeologists have discovered a rare trove of 3,000-year-old jewelry,
including a ring and earrings, hidden in a ceramic jug near the ancient
city of Megiddo, where the New Testament predicts the final battle of
Armageddon, May 25.

Old gold
meets flesh again
gets polished

glints in eyes
dazzles
fashions stories
to entertain
modern times
and sensibilities

Molded ibexes,
or wild goats
sit like

like sphinxes
posed at rest

Canaanite
it is called,
and it looks to me
like a clasp
for a scroll

or a napkin ring

My own habits
and hopes
and table manners
forge meaning
for me at least